The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Lambent Foundation (a project of the Tides Center) today announced a two-pronged major relief effort to assist artists and non-profit arts organizations who suffered serious damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

At a special meeting this morning, the Warhol Foundation Board of Directors approved an allocation of $2 million, half to go to affected visual arts organizations and half to individual artists. The Rauschenberg Foundation and Lambent Foundation will augment the fund.

The Warhol Foundation and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation will both address non-profit organizations in need through an emergency fund with The Andy Warhol Foundation making grants to visual arts organizations and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation making grants to other cultural organizations. All three foundations will pool their assets to assist individual artists through the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) (www.nyfa.org). In administering this re-granting program, NYFA will work closely with its community network, local arts contacts and other organizations in the affected tri-state region.

Joel Wachs, President of The Andy Warhol Foundation, said these emergency grants are in the spirit and tradition of the foundation’s long history of rapid response to devastating events such as 9/11 and Katrina; and Michael Straus, Chair of the Warhol Foundation Board noted that the emergency grants greatly honor the legacy of Andy Warhol and are being made possible by the Foundation’s increased sales of Warhol’s art, including this week’s sale at Christie’s.

"Every effort helps in a state of emergency - we are struck by the scope of need,” said Christy MacLear, Executive Director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “Pooling our resources with other artist foundations will help simplify the points of access for both artists and organizations - hopefully making the process of request as simple as possible for those hardest hit.”